Baltic Ring Initiative

DescriptionIn 2009, the Nordic Council of Ministers asked a group of e-Science and e-Infrastructure specialists to conduct a feasibility study on knowledge infrastructures in the Baltic Sea area. The report of the study points to a vast potential for regional collaboration, with the objective of strengthening the region within the wider European research arena. One recommendation of the study is to enhance the existing network infrastructures in the region, by a Baltic Sea redundant network ring using existing resources in a federated manner where possible, with the objective of ensuring that all countries in the region have access to core network services on the same level as other European countries and to establish the basis for wider e-Science collaborations. Such a Baltic Sea ring was expected to interconnect better the e-Science communities in the region, strengthen collaboration, and strengthen the role of the region in the European collaboration. As a follow-up action, the Nordic Council of Ministers has funded a design study, drawing up a detailed network design based on federation of regional resources. The study has delivered technical designs, recommendations for operational models, organization models, and cost sharing. As such, the study is both a concrete design of a network and the federation to establish and run it, and a template for regional network collaborations. Following up on the study, the Baltic Sea countries will be establishing a consortium with the objective to build and operate a advance optical network infrastructure. In addition, a far-reaching initiative, CyberBaltic, will seek establish advanced scientific and infrastructure collaboration in the region, enabled by the core Baltic Ring network. This talk will recap on that initiative, results achieved, the current status and next steps for the Baltic Ring initiative.